Top Five

Five questions with Josh Groban

NEW YORK -- Josh Groban enjoyed singing sad songs about a breakup on his last album, 2010's Rick Rubin-produced Illuminations. So when the singer started recording his latest album, which is about another breakup, he changed his approach.

"I'm in a different place, different mindset and the same thing goes -- but I wanted the record to feel more energetic, more dynamic, more positive, more rhythmic and uplifting," he said. "The last record, I was very proud of it, and it was a good record, but it was sad."

Groban doesn't have Rubin by his side on All That Echoes. Instead, he has Warner Bros. Records chairman and Green Day producer Rob Cavallo.

"For a guy who's at the top of the label chain to also say, 'Let's take chances and let's make music that just makes us feel really, really good' was so impressive to me," Groban said of Cavallo.

Groban, who turns 32 this month, isn't just building his musical résumé. He'll star as a failed rock musician working as a barista in the upcoming CollegeHumor indie comedy Coffee Town, written and directed by Arrested Development writer Brad Copeland. The singer talked about Coffee Town, singing about relationships, album sales and more in a recent interview.

1Is it easy singing about your breakup?

You're exorcising the demons a little bit when you sing about love lost and the things that didn't quite work out. But you learn from that and you grow from that, and there's oftentimes great art from that. My voice does sad really well, so I think selfishly sometimes it's more fun to sing the sadder songs.

2You were 20 when you released your debut in 2001. What's it like to think about that time as you reflect on your life?

I was blissfully naive. I'll tell you, when I was 17 and signed, on the one hand I kind of missed out on having a pretty raucous college experience, where I could wake up on the bathroom floor and say, "All right, not doing that again."... If I could go back and talk to that kid, though, I would just tell him to just chill out a little bit. I was just nervous as all hell.

3What was it like working with Rob Cavallo compared with Rick Rubin?

Rob was a great change of pace in a certain way because he likes to work very much based on riding a wave of energy when it's there, which is pretty compatible with how I like to work.... And whenever I would have doubts [like], "I don't know if this is my wheelhouse," or "I don't know if this is right for my voice," he'd be great at saying, "I don't know if you should sing that," or most of the time saying, "Well, shoot, let's expand what your wheelhouse is."

4You're building your acting reel. What's that been like?

It's great to let out that other side because the music side is so serious that to be able to have an outlet for your funny bone, for your weird, oddball side, is just cathartic for me.... I was in improv theater before I even started singing, so the fact that the comedy side is starting to work its way around in my world strangely, considering the kind of music I sing, I'll take it.

5Do you want to play a serious role?

Yeah, sure. I think I'm probably better at comedy, but comedians take serious roles sometimes and it actually goes really well.... I'd love to play a bad guy, actually. I'd love to dive in and play some kind of French assassin, like The Professional.

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